Scholar's Award: Permeable Spaces and the Global Flow of Biomedical Knowledge

过去对实验室、试验场、博物馆和其他科学传播和生产场所的研究发现，物理场所往往限制了可以生产和传播的知识种类。本研究挑战了这一框架，提供了一种新的理论框架和方法，将物理空间视为知识流通和转化的可渗透和重要场所。它的第二个主要贡献是将联邦法规研究与生物医学实践的经验定性证据结合起来。这项研究基于一项全球医院人种志，该人种志考察了影响生物医学知识全球分布和流通的因素。它调查了医院的物理布局和组织，对生物医学的文化理解以及规章制度如何相互影响，以塑造不同参与者如何理解、使用和传播知识。研究方法主要有参与式观察法、访谈法和法规内容分析法。更广泛的影响包括向在缅因州波特兰市进行研究的地区为移民提供服务的机构提供新知识；为生物医学工作人员提供的报告和介绍；还有科学出版物。

Past studies of laboratories, test fields, museums and other sites of scientific dissemination and production have found that physical places often limit the kinds of knowledge that can be produced and circulated. This study challenges that framework, offering a new theoretical framework and methodology that treats physical spaces as permeable and important sites of knowledge circulation and transformation. Its second major contribution is to integrate studies of federal regulations with empirical qualitative evidence of biomedical practices. The study is based on a global hospital ethnography that examines the factors that shape the global distribution and circulation of biomedical knowledge. It investigates how the physical layout and organization of a hospital, cultural understandings of biomedicine, and rules and regulations intersect to shape how knowledge is understood, used and circulated by different actors. The main research methods are participant observation, interviews, and content analysis of regulations and laws. Broader impacts include new knowledge delivered to agencies that provide services for immigrants in the greater Portland, Maine area where the study takes place; reports and presentations for biomedical staff; and scientific publications.